Cinnamon Rolls

Today I made Cinnamon Rolls! While I was letting them proof this afternoon, I listened to a TED talk a friend sent me by the author of the bread book himself, Peter Reinhart. I really enjoy what he has to say about bread, it seems kind of silly but at one point I actually got a little teary listening to him. It made me realize how special baking bread is and how primeval it can be. Here I am doing the same thing that thousands of Bates' have done before me; it is a very comforting thought.
Baking bread is so fulfilling, so methodical, and so rejuvenating. Turning raw ingredients into something people see or smell and say, "Are those for me?" is just an experience quite unlike anything else. Anyhow here are the pictures, I am getting a bit nervous about the next recipes as they deal with more complex pre-ferments such as bigas and poolishs :/ gahhh!

Rosemary Bread

Although this isn't in the bread book, I am sure Peter Reinheart wouldn't mind me posting it! I tweaked the recipe just a little bit, decreasing the yeast and doing a cold ferment for three hours in the fridge, I also did half wheat half white which was just a little too dense so i think i will adjust that next time.

Bread Bread Bread

I got a bread book for christmas and am planning to bake my way through it. It is a pretty intense book but the recipes I have tried out so far have been a success. Baking has become a new found love for me, it started during student teaching as a way to cope with stress and now it is a hobby that I love! Here is the book I am cooking from:



Here is my first loaf of half white half wheat bread:




and finally the corn bread I made this afternoon! Look at that yummy crispy bacon on top!



I might start posting my other cooking exploits....we will see how it goes

here

Facebook note cheat: 25 things about me

1. I figured if David Lee and Christie Robinson were cool enough to do this than so am I.
2. I love the food network and watch it frequently.
3. I think that Jews exceed all other race in hotness.
4. I love to read most anything.
5. I am addicted to Stumbleupon! And stumble for at least an hour a day.
6. If I drink coke or eat pizza on an empty stomach I get extraordinarily ridiculously obnoxiously hyper.
7. I have taken pretty much every British lit class offered at BYU-I aside from the Bronte sisters one.
8. I lived with Cassidy H. Robertson for 3 and a half years and loved every minute of them.
9. Last semester I went to New York City for four days in the middle of the semester.
10. My greatest goal in life is to be a librarian in Maine and to own a cat.
11. When I was a senior in high school I took a careers class and told my teacher my ultimate goal was to be a psychologist in Boston with a fichus tree.
12. Ira Glass rocks my world and I would gladly marry his 50 year old jewy face.
13. I often write poetry, it is not very good, and I am not being modest.
14. My best friend is Nicholas Wheeler and he knows more about me than any one ought to.
15. I love music I really love 90’s music I really really love Simon and Garfunkel.
16. The members of my family are hilarious and intelligent.
17. My favorite foods are in this order 1. Toast 2. Mashed Potatoes 3. Chocolate.
18. I believe in the internet.
19. I am semi active on Stickam, a web cam community full of shenanigans.
20. We never had any sort of game consul when I was growing up as a result I am extremely bad at most video games.
21. I really enjoy science fiction books as well as SCI-FI movies.
22. I have lived 20 minutes away from four major ski resorts my entire life and have been skiing twice (once in Idaho).
23. Last summer I went to Portland Oregon on vacation and just about died of happiness.
24. I love my friends and family and would do most anything for them, sometimes I think this gets annoying.
25. If there is a head or a back in front of me I will scratch it.

Update

So i thought i ought to update the man situation.
Boy#1 Things are going pretty well but I don't know how interested in him I am anymore because 1. he gave me "bones" twice on monday and then today he admited he enjoyed reading the book "Twilight" so I don't really know about all that. But i continued anyway and teased him quiet a bit during class which i think went well.
Boy #2 saw him at FHE and we barely spoke....this is pretty typical of me when i am pursuing someone...avoid them

Boy #3 AAAAHHHHH he is my favorite i am most certainly smitten. I went to Academy of Comedy again tonight with Griff and Megan as my Wingmen (they did very well) I laughed at him a lot we locked eyes and all that jazz. Afterwards four of them stayed and made an Impromptu musical it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. While a few others were doing a duet he talked to me a bit which was nice he is just so funny bah anyhow i was two seconds away from chasing him down and just telling him i was interested in him then megan told me she would just text his friend and try and finagle something which i kinda hate because it makes me feel MORE like i am in junior high than i already do.....anyhow we will see how this all goes



other than that things have been really good this week....I haven't cried in like five days which hasn't happened since october, and slowly Tim is ebbing out of my thoughts. Even that fact is a little painful, part of me still hopes that one day he will change his mind about things but i have realized that i can't just sit around and wait for him and at some point I have to move on so I might as well now. well thats it i am going to bed

A Little Experiment

So this semester i am trying to errrr break into the "dating scene" I suppose anyhow I have been talking to various people about how exactly to get them to know i am interested etc. ANYHOW there are a few men around here that have caught my eye and the plan is to pursue them in three different ways #1 they way people are telling me to pursue them #2 The way I normally go about doing things and #3 a mixture of the two mostly i am just seeing how these things work for me...and i know it doesn't really "prove" anything because as Nick pointed out there would have to be a much larger sample size....AND since romance attraction etc is such a subjective terrible thing that i could pursue someone in all the "right" ways and it wouldn't matter cause they frankly were not attracted to me. SO I understand all this but for my own personal awareness and of course for entertainment for the two of you who read this blog I will be documenting my exploits or lack there of.

So here is the low down(they will all be referred to as numbers from now on):
Boy #1(I will be taking other people's advice with this one) is in one of my english classes i was brave and introduced myself last friday and he whispered a comment in my ear during class (my greatest accomplishment thus far)
Boy #2 (doing things my own way--obviously from this experience) is in my ward on tuesday at the ward party i told him that I was "pretty geared about this chinese food" and he looked at like i was crazy
Boy #3 I haven't technically met but we were both at an activity on campus and i think he was giving me eyes but i am not sure anyhow turns out my roommate knows him and is going to slip in a word tomorrow so we will see how all of this goes

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life

Well, Ive been afraid of changing
cause Ive built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
Im getting older too

Oh, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down

If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down

Home for the weekend

This weekend I ended up at home, Nick was coming down here to look for apartments and for his second interview with Ogio so i decided to lend him some moral support. It has been a lot of fun being with him again, i really miss his presence in rexburg.

This weekend has been really nice, it has been good to hang around people i have known longer than two weeks. I have missed being able to be myself around people and i have missed being with people who know me. I really do not want to go back to Idaho. I wish i could just stay here and live with Nick and hang out with Whitney, Brikaeli and Daniel. Oh well six more months and then i am home for good!

we are heading back sometime this afternoon i am looking forward to a nice long chat with Nick in the car...

Today i had my first session with Geoff this year. It was nice i have missed talking to him. mostly we just talked about my "goals" for the year etc. I forget how much perspective he gives my life. While i was talking to him about the events of christmas break i realized how stupid it all was and how childish i have been acting i really truly do attempt to stay out of drama but i just kept causing it for myself which is ridiculous. I honestly think part of it was just trying to stop thinking about tim all the time. and it is true now that i am away from everything i think about him more and miss him more. mreh i am glad tomorrow is friday.

Stupid accurate dream analysis

Zombie

To see or dream that you are a zombie, suggests that you are physically and/or emotionally detached from people and situations that are currently surrounding you. You are feeling out of touch. Alternatively, it may indicate that you are feeling dead inside and are simply going through the motions of daily living

another day

Today has been nice. This morning I went and talked to the advising office and got my books...then matt and some of his roommates took me with them to IF to go to this amazingly cheap grocery store called WinCo. After that I took cass out to lunch and we did some shopping while in the process we ran into Clint, who just got off his mission. It was good to see him, although he is a bit awkward he has kind of always been like that. Then we went back to Cass' and just hung out until Nick got home they left and i came home and i have just been chilling, I have been trying to put all my poetry into my new moleskine that Dia got me for christmas. It has been fun and also a little painful looking back on the last couple years. Anyhow I am off

whelp

here i am back in good old rexburg, last night i stayed at nick's which was so refreshing and wonderful. he always makes me feel so good. I am about half way unpacked in my new apartment it is a lot nicer than any other apartment i have been in. My roommate seems nice enough her name is ashley (i think) I am just waiting for matt to get here so he can help me with the heavy stuff :)

I am feeling nervous about school and about friends but it is a comfort to know that nick is just in shelly

class starts on wednesday i am sure it will be grand but right now i am feeling all detached and gross anyhow i am off

Its been a while

I thought i would start the new year off right. The last week has been pretty crazy, over the weekend I went to Kennewick for Cass and Nick's wedding which was so much fun and so wonderful to see them so happy. On tuesday i hung out with Tim and told him i don't want to talk to him anymore and proceeded to cry for the next ten hours. On wednesday Daniel called me around 11 and told me he was in Utah and was bored so I went down to provo and helped him look for housing and just hung out. At about 9 we headed up to my house where we had dinner and played games watched movies and talked until midnight. It was one of the most pleasant new years eves i have ever had. I was supposed to go to a party but i was still feeling sad about tim and didn't really want to talk to anyone so Daniel said "if you don't want to go DON'T GO" it was good advice and i am glad i took it. Yesterday dan and i watched firefly ate pancakes and went to Barnes and Noble and he left around six. I am so glad he came he helped me keep my mind off of everything and offered some good advice. As much as i tease dan and make fun of him he is a good friend and a smart person i am happy i got to spend some time with him this week.

On wednesday while we were hanging out Daniel decided we need to make eachother's new year's resolutions so here they are in all their glory...you can definitely tell daniel had influence on these :)


NEW YEARS GOALS

Catherine
o 10 new friends not including roommates
o Attend Ward Activities
o Go Skiing with Daniel Robertson
o Find the Perfect Grad School
o Run 10 miles
o Do what I want not what everyone else wants two times in January.
o Try three new things
o Beat Matt at Mario Cart
o Read BOM
o Visiting Teaching
o Figure crap out


Daniel
• 10 dates with new people
• Go skiing with Catherine
• Go telemark skiing
• Find a place to live
• Start on thesis or prospectus
• Decide on field of work
• Attend ward activities
• Find out about knee
• Climb Rainier
• Do what someone else wants three times in January
• Try ten new things
• Home Teaching
• Read BOM

blah

I have been trying to shake the funk but it just isn't working. I am hoping that a good long break with all my family will help me out a bit, I think it will especially since i get to see my baby baby nephew Ezra woohoo!!!! and I get to see James and Karen who I haven't seen for a whole year! I am surprised how well i have kept up on my school work...generally when i feel like this everything else goes to hell too, but i think i will do pretty well this semester which is comforting. Speaking of school I have decided to graduate in the fall so I will be up here for summer semester. I am actually pretty excited, matt will be here so that will be nice and I have heard that summer is a blast here.

whelp that is about it, maybe something eventful will happen in the near future to report on

reduced to an infant

all I have done today is vomited pooped and slept


on the up side my medival literature teacher sent me an e mail that I feel explains his personality and his teaching methods quite well:

Class,

I wonder if you might help me spread the word about 327. This class will be great fun and very informative. If it were fruit, it would be luscious grapes, not pedestrian fruit like granny smith apples, though if anyone wanted it to be granny smith apples, I would be willing to adapt. Actually, I like granny smith apples, but when I imagine rich Romans eating fruit, I don’t see them getting bunches of apples dumped on them. Pomegranates, maybe, but not apples.

Still, it will be a nice class, and in its inaugural form, students will have the chance to affect its future reincarnations. Please tell your friends. If you’ve liked the class so far, 327 will be twice as cool. If you haven’t liked 331, then you will like 327. If you don’t like me personally, well, I wouldn’t take 327.

Still, if you will help me out, we’ll get the word out and I’ll get to teach it, thus legitimizing further your English degrees. It’s win/win!

DM



I am going to go try and keep down some water

politicsPoliticsPOLITICS!!

I generally stay out of all of this political nonsense I feel I am not informed enough to really argue with anyone about anything regardless of that their are issues where I do actually have an opinion and because i live in a hyper-conservative city and attend a hyper-conservative college those opinions are bound to be contradicted and tromped upon and considered basically evil. I was going to write a post expressing my disgust for all of this but my dear nick did it for me check it out

clarification

the post two down from this one is not by my own hand.....I thought i had written where it was from but i didn't-- it is the lyrics to the song The Swan and the Swimming by Iron and Wine

Grateful

Cassidy was remarking that i haven't written anything happy for a while so here it is Catherine's OVER THE TOP X-TREME GRATEFUL LIST 20008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friends that love and care about me
good food
shelter
Dinner Group
Amazing Family
27 5th graders who think I am cool
a great university
The Gospel
Documentary Night
a bed to sleep in
warm clothes
Geoff
The ability to learn
New opportunities
My Schwinn
Rexburg
Scenery
Rain
Good things happening to people who deserve them
Nephews and nieces
Books
DI
Thai food
and a million other things that I am so glad are a part of my life! HURRAY FOR LIFE!!!!

"take me again," she said, thinking of him
"i don’t care for this careful behavior"
a brush through her hair, children kissing upstairs
keeps her up with her want for her savior
the sun on the sand, on her knees and her hands
as she begs for her fish from the water
but turn them away, she’s a whip and a slave
given time she may find something better
oh how the rain sounds as loud as a lover’s words
and now and again she’s afraid when the sun returns